Back to the original question:
You want to "upgrade" the MB with another. You were asked why. Is it because you have already maxed out the performance of the board?
It will take careful (as has been mentioned) research to find one which will fit in the same place (as mentioned there are likely candidates) but you want to put in one with more performance not the same as you have. Again, this will take very careful research.
Obviously, you are no longer going to get support from HP when you do this. The current drivers you are using are not likely to work with the new MB so you'll have to install them from the CD that comes with the new MB and/or off the web site for the new MB. Again, you will be on your own in all this.
As has been already mentioned, the major manufactures put in cheapo power supplies (which are a major portion of the expense of a machine) to just get by, so if you want more performance, you need more power to support it. You might want this new MB so you can put in a faster CPU and more/faster memory. In the end, what are you saving? HDs, floppies, CDs, the case are relatively miniscule costs to the whole machine.
Will your CD and HD work with the new MB? WIll you be able to boot up into the OS without any hassles? If you have a lot of time and you view this as a learning opportunity, go for it. In my opinion, it's likely the least trouble and expense to get a new machine with the performance headroom you are drooling over. Build the next machine yourself as the learning experience (if you still want one) and your success and satisfaction will be higher than trying to push this one past it's design.
Sell this one to a beginner who doesn't know about SH4 yet.
-Pv-
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